In the development of small, fast-acting components, maintaining close tolerances becomes a problem. For example, in the manufacture of miniature mercury-wetted sealed contact switches the magnetic reluctance through the switches is changed by a variation in a small gap between an armature and a stem to which the armature is pivotably mounted.
In such a miniature switch, the armature is mounted at one end through a reed spring to the stem. The spring flexes to support the pivotal movement of the armature. However, for the armature to be able to pivot, a gap must exist between the armature and the stem. As the armature swings from one end of its range of movement to the other, the gap width increases or decreases.
In comparison to larger switches, miniature switches typically have much faster operating speeds in that less time is required to close or open their contacts in response to an electrical input pulse. Yet, to take advantage of such faster operating speed, tolerances for establishing, for example, the gap width between the armature and the stem become more critical. A seemingly small change in the gap width between the armature and the stem of a miniature switch may represent a relatively large percentage change in the gap width and, hence, may result in a significant deviation from a desired operating characteristic of the switch.
It is, therefore, desirable to establish methods of precisely aligning component parts, such as the stem, the armature and the spring with respect to each other, and to precisely control their alignment during their assembly into a subassembly of the switch.